Resplendent

While I was sleeping...

Carol loves me. Loves me and only me. I'm the happiest man on earth. My happiness towers over everyone else and I proclaim myself king of the world. No one opposes me and I spend all my time with Carol. We sleep in the same bed, and our dreams are of each other. We spend a lifetime together, our love is only surpassed by our happiness. We hug and the universe rejoices, we kiss and the Heavens open up and sing praise, and we make love and the universe is transformed into an ocean of ecstasy.

Scapegoat

A vision I saw watching the backs of my eyelids.

I am a student. Two of my current professors are arguing. A childhood friend of mine, Steve, is in both of their classes. My professors are disappointed in Steve's performance.

"He has such potential, too bad he's so underdeveloped"

"If only he came to office hours, or if he e-mailed me more questions, he could be the best student in the class"

"Such a waste"

I feel sorry for Steve, he's a bright kid. I turn to leave, and realize that they never said Steve's name, and they never addressed me. They were talking about me, and how I wasted my college career. I cried the rest of the dream, hours later I woke up.

Water Cranes?!

Dream a little dream.

1

I was a veterinarian. I wore a long white lab coat, had a stylish black goatee, and had slicked my stringy black hair back. My lively green eyes were not hidden by glasses but caught people’s attention when I look at them. I was walking back from my clinic when I heard something rustling in the hedge, just down the hill. My curiosity stopped me and I watched to see if something would come out into the clearing. A large German shepherd leaped out of the bushes and bounded up the hill towards me. Thoughts of how sick or possibly dangerous this dog could be fogged my brain and I stood in a stupor.

Nearly upon me, if the dog meant to attack it shall surly kill me. The German shepherd’s powerful jaws were floating up to my neck when action returned to me. I jumped sideways falling down the hill. Before I could orient myself, the shepherd was upon me. This time a fistful of collar saved my life. A mouth full of dull pocket knifes assaulted my arms, which I easily surrendered to the mauling to buy some time. I strained my neck and eyes to see the whole valley, but there was nothing around that could kill or even harm the German shepherd. I wasn't carrying anything with me that I could use as a weapon either. Chunks of my arm were missing now, and I wouldn't be able to keep the animal at bay much longer.

Thoughts of home were comforting in my last moments, but the knives turned to washcloths and my arms no longer struggled with this force of nature. The shepherd looked up to me and spoke. He spoke kind words and apologies, and asked forgiveness. He had made a mistake. I asked him to join me, and follow me to where ever I go. This sat well with him and we made our way home.

2

The water crane league at the YMCA met once a month, and was three weeks away. I am the captain of our water crane. A water crane crew usually consists of four members: a captain, a helmsman, and two crane operators. In water crane one uses a floating crane, about the size of a large van, to uncurl the hydraulic arm of a floating back hoe. A water crane pool is more of a lake than a pool; people are dots on the opposite edge. There are back hoes in the middle of the pool and are also the size of large vans. The back hoes have any number of hydraulic arms attached to a stationary platform. Both teams start next to the back hoes and once the stationary back hoes uncurl one of their hydraulic arms it's a race and battle back the the pool's edge in that direction. One can use any propulsion method to get back to the pool's edge as long as the device or modification does not extend more than two feet off of frame. We use a small steam boat paddle with working steam engine. Our design is unique and somehow superior to all other propulsion methods. We have never tasted defeat.

The German shepherd, naturally, came to the YMCA to observe my performance. We shared three weeks of peaceful companionship, but I still did not trust him. He was huge and tough and could overpower me in an instant. Three weeks I lived in fear that he would turn on me. Even when aboard my floating crane, separated from the shepherd by one hundred feet of deep water, I felt uneasy. The matches were predictable and I did not share my crew's enjoyment of our victories. The Y closed and the shepherd and I walked the long way home. My eyes would dart ahead and look for some fallen tree branches, or a forgotten baseball bat, anything to defend myself. I searched for a pit off the side of the path I might be able to push my dangerous shadow and finally be free.

The shepherd’s trot slowed and then stopped. I turned to face him and he spoke again. More kind words and now memories of our new relationship flowed from his mouth. My heart melted and I loved him. I bent down to embrace him when my ear exploded with pain. My face felt warm and sticky and I opened my eyes. I vomited with disgust at the sight of my dog's splattered brains. My head whipped around searching for the fucking assassin that robbed me of my friend. Then I calmed down. I would be with my German shepherd soon enough all I had to do was wait. The steel soon ripped through my eye, and as I lay on the ground I thought happy thoughts.

Meatball Beach

A dream.

I'm a tall, well built, six foot tall man, with short blond hair and a full red beard. There is a touch of white in my beard right below my lip that makes me look like I'm about to say something. It's night and the summer breeze blows the last clouds over the horizon. The moon is a sliver in the sky and is unusually bright as it illuminates the beach in front of me. I'm holding a long silver broad sword that is as light as the gentle waves lapping at the shore. The beach rises steeply, but walking up the grade isn't a challenge. As I reach the top I notice a small circular depression.

Waving my sword over the circle causes a single ferroelectric meatball the size of a golf ball to rise out of the ground in the center of the small pit. My sword, and apparently strong magnet, can now control the meatball and I sent it toward the sea. I wave my sword over the now embossed circular rune and another meatball is raised from the depths of the sand. I also send it on its way to the sea. I continue doing so until there is a mound of meatballs that stands as high as a small child, and the sand that collected on the meatballs on their journey toward the sea has turned into a fine powdered sugar that sparkles in the moonlight.

Torches appear and I get ready for the party. I'm the host to an elegant sea side ball, but I'm nervous. The two women in my life, Stacy and Carol, are soon to arrive and I want to please them. I eat some sweet but delicious meatballs and entertain guests until they arrive. Stacy and Carol show up together, both in debonair purple dresses. Stacy's is backless and she twirls around constantly, to everyone’s oh's and ah's. Carol has a strapless dress and leans slightly back, which produces a similar, yet noticeably smaller reaction.

The scene suddenly changes and Carol and I are on vacation in New England. We are sitting in a large wooden cabin that also happens to be a bar and grill. We're sitting at a table with two pirate captains. It turns out that the captains are also our tour guides and want to show us a beautiful lake. The largest lake in the world, they claim, that just happens to be rather close by. Carol and I agree, below our breath, that there is no way the lake could be larger than Lake Superior.

Carol admits that she's drunk, and I notice for the first time a strange color-changing liquid that she has been drinking the entire time. How the liquid is staying in the Klein bottle she has is a mystery to me but I quickly dismiss my doubt. I have a glass of the now blue liquid myself. Immediately I find that I'm drunk as well, and that now all four of us are on the trail to the lake. Carol pulls me aside to ask me a question, but something is wrong.